Protest against Award by Prime Contractor Based on Proposal Evaluation

A protester to a contract award under a solicitation by a prime operating contractor for the Department of Energy (DOE) contended that the proposal evaluation was incorrect, that the solicitation did not clearly show the importance of a criterion, and that it was not given credit for its status as a small business operating in a labor surplus area. Procurements by the DOE contractor must be consistent with Federal procurement policy. GAO does not review judgments concerning technical proposals unless they are unreasonable. The protest was denied because: the contractor met the requirement for holding meaningful discussions; cost realism cannot be established by simple comparison in differing technical proposals, costs may be used as an indication of understanding of work scope, and award may be made to a higher-priced offeror; the protester may not be given credit for his status if this was not an evaluation factor in the solicitation; and the protester could not show that he was prejudiced by lack of knowledge of the weighting of evaluation criteria.